HEBRON, Sunday, April 07, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces ordered on Sunday the demolition of nine residential structures in Masafer Yatta region, south of the West Bank, and animal barns in the town of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, according to local and Palestinian security sources.

Rateb Jabour, a local rights activist, told WAFA that staff from the Israeli Planning and Construction Committee accompanied by a military escort broke into the village of Tuwanah in Masafer Yatta region and handed notices ordering demolition of residential structures, tents and caravans belonging to local citizens.

The landowners were identified as Ra’ed, Morad, Amer, Mahmoud and Mohammad Hamamdeh.

The occupation authorities said the demolition would take place under the pretext that the structures were built without an Israeli permit.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces notified a Palestinian in Beit Jala town, near Bethlehem, anout their intention to demolition animal barns of his own, also for lacking a construction permit.

Both villages are located in Area C which makes over 60 percent of the area of the occupied West Bank, under full Israeli military control, where Palestinian development is not allowed and prevented by force.

Israeli refuses to permit any Palestinian construction in Area C, forcing ctizens to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.

On the other hand, Israel easily gives the estimated 550,000 Jewish settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

M.N